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A Survey of the Use and Function of Idioms in Company Culture Statements

Received: 25 September 2018     Accepted: 5 November 2018     Published: 3 December 2018
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Abstract

Nowadays, the localization orientation which is based on national culture appears in the study of business culture. However, there is a lack of investigations and researches on what kind of resources can be used to help the contemporary Chinese enterprises to effectively inherit traditional Chinese culture. From the perspective of discourse analysis, this study investigates the idioms used by private companies in their company culture statements, analyzes the characteristics of business culture reflected by the company culture statements in the form of idioms, and studies how the Chinese enterprises use idioms to construct the company culture. The study investigates the use of Chinese idioms in the company culture statements of 257 private companies in China, and analyzes the practices of related business in constructing business culture by using idioms. It is found that the construction of business culture by using idioms can improve the situational relevance between business culture and Chinese social culture. They can better apply the spirits such as zìqiángbùxī (striving constantly to become stronger), hézhōnggòngjì (working harmoniously), bàochéngshǒuzhēn (keeping honest and true), hòudézàiwù (keeping self-disciplined and great virtue) and other Chinese cultural morals to the construction of business culture in the contemporary China. The results interpret that private companies in the company culture statements can well exert an influence on idioms for load-bearing role of traditional culture and the study plays a significant role in Chinese companies in their construction of native business culture.

Published in International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 6, Issue 6)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijll.20180606.13
Page(s) 202-209
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2018. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Idiom, Business/Company Culture, Company Culture Statement, Construction of Native Business Culture

References
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[3] Fei X. (2012) Agrestic China, Beijing:Beijing University Press.
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[5] Hofstede, G. J. (2005) Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. New York: McGraw- Hill.
[6] Kramsch, C. (2000) Language and Culture. London: Oxford University Press.
[7] Li D. (1994) Idiom and Chinese Culture, Nankai Journal( Philosophy, Literature and Social Science Edition), 6, pp 68-71,59.
[8] Li H., Guo Bi., Li B. (2005) The Construction of Chinese Business Culture: Inherit and Innovation, Beijing:The Business Management Press.
[9] Li X. (1995) On the Value System of Chinese Idiom, Journal of Guizhou Normal University (Social Science), 3, pp 54-58.
[10] Liu M. (2000) Chinese Culture and Innovation of Chinese Enterprise Management, Journal of Zhongnan University of Finance and Economics, 3, pp 47-49.
[11] Liu L., Zhang D. (2007) Organizational Culture Measurement: Model Construct and An Empirical Research in Chinese Background, Nankai Business Review, 2, pp 19-24.
[12] Mo P. (2011) On the Language Cultural Characteristics of Idioms and Phrases, Journal of School of Chinese Language and Culture of Nanjing Normal University 4, pp158-162.
[13] Qu Q. (2007) A Comparison Between the Cultural Statements of Chinese and United States Companies, China Industrial Economy, 5, pp 80-87.
[14] Sun H., Dai S., Tong L. (2004) The Dimension of Organizational Culture of Private Enterprises, Journal of Zhongshan University (Social Sciences), 3, pp 100-105.
[15] Sun Y. (2004) On the Relationship between Industry Culture and the Minority Cultures, Journal of Minzu University of China(Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), 6, pp 69-72.
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[18] Xu S. (2012) Indigenous Characteristics of Chinese Corporate Culture Conceptual Paradigm, Management Review, 6: 124-132.
[19] Yang Y. (2005) Research on Business Culture of Chinese Private Company in the Transpositional Periods, Doctoral paper, Fudan University.
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Yin Zhiping. (2018). A Survey of the Use and Function of Idioms in Company Culture Statements. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 6(6), 202-209. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20180606.13

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    ACS Style

    Yin Zhiping. A Survey of the Use and Function of Idioms in Company Culture Statements. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2018, 6(6), 202-209. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20180606.13

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    AMA Style

    Yin Zhiping. A Survey of the Use and Function of Idioms in Company Culture Statements. Int J Lang Linguist. 2018;6(6):202-209. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20180606.13

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijll.20180606.13,
      author = {Yin Zhiping},
      title = {A Survey of the Use and Function of Idioms in Company Culture Statements},
      journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
      volume = {6},
      number = {6},
      pages = {202-209},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20180606.13},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20180606.13},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20180606.13},
      abstract = {Nowadays, the localization orientation which is based on national culture appears in the study of business culture. However, there is a lack of investigations and researches on what kind of resources can be used to help the contemporary Chinese enterprises to effectively inherit traditional Chinese culture. From the perspective of discourse analysis, this study investigates the idioms used by private companies in their company culture statements, analyzes the characteristics of business culture reflected by the company culture statements in the form of idioms, and studies how the Chinese enterprises use idioms to construct the company culture. The study investigates the use of Chinese idioms in the company culture statements of 257 private companies in China, and analyzes the practices of related business in constructing business culture by using idioms. It is found that the construction of business culture by using idioms can improve the situational relevance between business culture and Chinese social culture. They can better apply the spirits such as zìqiángbùxī (striving constantly to become stronger), hézhōnggòngjì (working harmoniously), bàochéngshǒuzhēn (keeping honest and true), hòudézàiwù (keeping self-disciplined and great virtue) and other Chinese cultural morals to the construction of business culture in the contemporary China. The results interpret that private companies in the company culture statements can well exert an influence on idioms for load-bearing role of traditional culture and the study plays a significant role in Chinese companies in their construction of native business culture.},
     year = {2018}
    }
    

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    AB  - Nowadays, the localization orientation which is based on national culture appears in the study of business culture. However, there is a lack of investigations and researches on what kind of resources can be used to help the contemporary Chinese enterprises to effectively inherit traditional Chinese culture. From the perspective of discourse analysis, this study investigates the idioms used by private companies in their company culture statements, analyzes the characteristics of business culture reflected by the company culture statements in the form of idioms, and studies how the Chinese enterprises use idioms to construct the company culture. The study investigates the use of Chinese idioms in the company culture statements of 257 private companies in China, and analyzes the practices of related business in constructing business culture by using idioms. It is found that the construction of business culture by using idioms can improve the situational relevance between business culture and Chinese social culture. They can better apply the spirits such as zìqiángbùxī (striving constantly to become stronger), hézhōnggòngjì (working harmoniously), bàochéngshǒuzhēn (keeping honest and true), hòudézàiwù (keeping self-disciplined and great virtue) and other Chinese cultural morals to the construction of business culture in the contemporary China. The results interpret that private companies in the company culture statements can well exert an influence on idioms for load-bearing role of traditional culture and the study plays a significant role in Chinese companies in their construction of native business culture.
    VL  - 6
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